French Apple Tart

So my latest baking adventure was quite a feat. I attempted to make a French Apple Tart. The first of the hurdles I had to get over was peeling and coring 9 Granny Smith apples without a coring tool. I swear, these pastries don’t make you fat because of all the work it takes to prepare them!

I really thought I was going to cut myself. Thankfully I had only one scare and there was no bloodshed!

After I peeled and cored 6 of them, I sliced them thin and mixed them with a little flour, sugar and cinnamon and put them on a jelly roll pan to bake. (Jelly roll pans are just baking sheets with edges. Something I learned recently!)

After about 15 minutes of baking, you take them out of the oven and mash them.

You’re supposed to be able to mash them with a potato masher but my apples were being stubborn. I took out the food processor and let them have it.

But I’m a little ahead of myself. First I had to make the pie crust (which I almost horribly ruined, but saved at the last minute), chill it for 2 hours, roll it out and blind bake it (that’s baking without any filling in it) for 30-ish minutes. I let it cool, and then filled it with the apple filling.

Then I peeled and cored the remaining three apples and sliced them thin for the topping. I arranged them on top of the tart…

Then I basted the apples with melted butter and sprinkled sugar on top and stuck it in the oven.

Finished product:

Conclusion: It was beautiful and good. Not amazing. I give it a 4 out of 5. Jason and I both agreed that it wasn’t worth the work that was put into it. (Three different baking elements!) But it was good and it was my first tart. Thank you Julia for the lesson.

Recipe from Baking with Julia, French Apple Tart.